A MOTHER in Taiwan was so excited about her son’s first courtship that she bought about 200 condoms for him, China Press reported.
She was elated when her 19-year-old son told her that he had fallen in love with a girl and shared a picture of his girlfriend with his mum.
Relating her story on an online community group, the mother, who was abroad, said she had told her son to “take extra precautions”.
Since her son had no job yet, she decided to buy him the condoms from overseas and give it to him when she returned home.
But when she got back to Taiwan recently, her son said that he would have no use of the condoms.
“He told me that they have broken up,” the mother said, adding that they had no idea what to do with so many condoms.
Her post has so far won tens of thousands of likes, with users jokingly suggesting that they use it as balloons for her son’s birthday party.
> A South Korean doctor drew flak online for his remark that “adults who have not contracted Covid-19 by now have interpersonal problems”.
Dr Ma Sang-hyuk, who is Korean Vaccine Society vice-president, had made similar comments previously, such as, “If a man’s family members tested positive and he did not, then they are not a family”.
And also: “The husband tested positive but not the wife. Is this normal husband and wife?”
He also wrote on Facebook that “real friends are those who dine, drink and get infected together”, Oriental Daily reported.
The posts were removed but screencaps of them had been circulating with many criticising him for his insensitivity.
Someone wrote cynically: “I have not got infected, so I have no friends.”
Another user questioned Dr Ma: “So have you contracted Covid-19? Otherwise, you must have no friends.”
Korean media said Dr Ma was different from other health experts in that he had advocated treatment instead of prevention.
His posts were made when daily infections hit over 400,000 in South Korea with record high critical patients and deaths.
Following the criticisms, Dr Ma explained that his “no friends” remark was a metaphor that contracting Covid-19 is inevitable.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ‘ >’sign, it denotes a separate news item.